Firefox Campus Edition

This may be of use to us researchers. Mozilla has released a special version of its popular Firefox browser for students - Firefox Campus Edition.

What's different from the Campus Edition and the normal release is that the Campus Edition already has three addons which are deemed to be widely used by students like us such as FoxyTunes, StumbleUpon and Zotero.

Actually, I only find Zotero of relevance to us. I've used FoxyTunes before and don't really like it. StumbleUpon is alright but maybe not that relevant to us researchers. Zotero however I find very interesting and useful. You can view the guided tour of Zotero to judge for yourself.

I think I will just add the Zotero addon to my current browser instead of installing the Campus Edition as it essentially is the same except for the addons.

Major Revamp for Malaysian Higher Education

Looks like there will be some shake-ups in the Malaysian Higher Education system come August 27th.

Major plans to transform higher education

PETALING JAYA: Two comprehensive plans to transform the country's higher education will be launched on Aug 27.

The initiatives and programmes under the National Higher Education Strategic Plan and the National Higher Education Action Plan 2007 - 2010 include:

* Introducing greater transparency in the selection of senior management in public universities;

* The development of a national lifelong learning policy through the formation of a national committee;

* Exchange programmes where top students will be given the opportunity to spend at least one semester in selected top foreign universities to enrich their learning experience; and

* Industry attachment of lecturers to enable the secondment of academics to private sector organisations and vice versa.

"The strategic plan is broad and comprehensive encompassing new initiatives and enhancing existing programmes.

It also expresses the ministry's vision for the transformation of higher education from now until 2020," Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said in a statement Wednesday.

Read the full article here.

USM Top Malaysian Research University

Saw this article in The Sunday Star - Education section.

Last month, USM was named the top research university in the country by the Higher Education Ministry.

This is based on a five-year evaluation against eight criteria: research quality, research quantity, researcher quality and quantity, postgraduate quality and quantity, level of innovation, support such as facilities and human expertise, level of networking and internationalisation, and number of awards and recognition received.

According to Prof Dzulkifli, the university scored high marks in all eight areas used in the appraisal, which took place from 2000 to 2005.

USM received 100% for innovation, awards and recognition and at least 88% in most categories.

A lot of interesting points brought up in the article such as a better remuneration scheme to attract more postgraduate students and how USM will spend the RM153 million grant received by all research universities.

Read the full article here.